The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and life prediction circuit and life prediction method for semiconductor devices.
It is known that power semiconductor devices such as IGBTs (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors) undergo cracks at their connecting portions between wire bonding pads and wires due to heat during the use or the like, eventually leading to disconnection of the wires and resulting in a failure.
Such a failure due to deterioration, and therefore the lifetime, of power semiconductor devices, as described in JP H06-070553 A, JP H08-051768 A and JP H08-275586 A, can be predicted statistically to some extent by being quantified as a function of operating time, current value, number of times of switching and the like of the semiconductor device.
Therefore, the life prediction of the prior art has been such that the use of the semiconductor is stopped when the integrated value of operating time or the like has reached a specified value.